


Adventure in the Woods

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Poltergeist: The Legacy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Demon Summoning, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-06
Packaged: 2018-05-12 06:23:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5655841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick goes alone to track a creature in the forest and finds more than he bargained for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adventure in the Woods

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spirited_lizard](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=spirited_lizard).



> Written for spirited_lizard who gave the prompt “man in the wilderness”. Originally posted to Livejournal in 2012.

Nick pulled his coat tighter around him and dived once more into the thick forest. Snow was just starting to fall and the light was fast receding – if he didn’t make it to the cabin in the next hour he might very well find himself stranded, alone, with whatever creature was out stalking campers. As he heard something off to his right snap a branch he thought, just for a moment, that he shouldn’t have been quite so quick to dismiss Derek's offer of help. But then a deer stepped in to view, just for a moment, before disappearing back into the trees, and he smiled; he could handle whatever the wilderness had to throw at him.

This was hardly the first time he'd been off on his own, it was a basic part of his SEAL training, but he hadn't been on a Legacy mission on his own for a while. It felt good actually, just as good as he'd remembered, to go where he wanted, plan his own route, having no one to answer to but himself.

It wasn't as if he didn't get on with the others - his relationship with Derek was probably better now than it had ever been – but sometimes he just really needed to be on his own. And there didn't come much more alone than this, a forest deep in the heart of Washington.

Not that he was here on a pleasure trip. Two campers had been killed and a third was in a coma at a local hospital. Each were exhibiting what the technician Nick had spoken to that morning described as “really fucking strange claw marks”. A bear attack was generally credited as the culprit, but there was something about a local legend, of shape-shifters, that had caught Alex's eye and she'd brought it to Derek's attention. Nick knew that Alex had been angling for this to be her first solo trip outside San Francisco, but Derek had insisted that he needed her help cataloguing some artefacts from the Rio de Janeiro House and had passed the case on to Nick instead.

Nick was generally inclined to side with the authorities – bear attack _did_ sound far more likely, but then Alex's research had never steered them wrong yet.

He strayed further into the forest, searching for the trail the guide at the supplies store had told him about. He had to be nearly there by now.

There was another snapping of branches and Nick froze, slowing his breathing until he could no longer hear it, could only hear the sounds of the forest. Except there weren't any.

The forest was completely silent, no birds, no insects, nothing. Something was out there though, something that was most definitely stalking him.

He turned his head a little to the side and thought he saw the glint of eyes before they vanished again, without a sound. Either the creature was standing feet from him and blinking, or they were moving around him so silently that he'd never be able to track them. Deciding that he really had no option but to move he suddenly turned and began to climb up the nearest tree.

There was a growl then, to the left of him, surprising him with its sheer volume. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and as he scrabbled desperately up the tree, hoping beyond hope that the thing couldn't climb, something swiped at his legs. He moved them out of the way just in time, but felt the heel of his shoe fall away to the ground. The creature gave out another shout and then Nick could hear it running away in the opposite direction.

Nick moved himself into a more comfortable position, balanced on one of the thicker looking branches and swung his bag around. He pulled out his night vision goggles and slipped them on, wishing he'd had the foresight to have them closer before. He scanned the immediate area but could only see the usual forest creatures milling about. Then, careful to keep his balance, he stood up on the branch and looked further out. Whatever that creature was, it had felt big, and so should be obvious if it was nearby. But there was nothing, no sign as far as the eye could see. So it was big, and it was fast.

Nick sat down, considering his options. He flicked open his phone but, as he had suspected, there was no signal out here. He did have a radio but he wasn't certain that he wanted to call for back-up, not just yet. He'd faced worse than this on his own before. Probably.

He had spotted the cabin he was heading for when he'd looked through the goggles though. It only looked to be another 10 minutes of uphill hiking. He could manage that, surely. It took him a moment, but he realised that the forest was alive with sound again, so whatever had frightened them the first time was no longer close by. His decision made he checked the bullets in his gun and slid down the tree, landing on all fours like a cat.

Nothing happened and so he set off at a jog, jumping over fallen branches, dodging around rabbit holes, keeping all his senses alert, straining to hear anything unusual over the pounding of his own heart.

He almost closed his eyes in relief when he saw the cabin up ahead but was forced to a sudden halt by a shape appearing in the window. He ducked down low and did a roll, coming to rest beside a tree. In the momentary glance he'd had the shape had seemed human, but no one was supposed to be out here at this time of year; the man at the supplies store had certainly seemed to think that the forest was now out of bounds until the summer, especially after the bad press the attack on the campers caused.

Nick peered around the tree and tried to get a better look, but whoever it was had now moved out of sight of the window. He could hardly stay where he was, so he began to slowly stalk towards the cabin, keeping as low as possible. When he reached the door he tentatively pushed it, and to his surprise found that it opened easily.

He sprang up, gun raised, and entered the cabin. A light flared and he was almost blinded, but he dodged the bullet that came towards him and fired off a shot of his own in the general direction he thought he'd seen movement. But there was something behind him and before he could turn around a massive blow to his head had him falling to the ground, unconscious.

* * * * *

“What the hell is the Luna Foundation anyway?” a disembodied voice was asking, as Nick began to slowly regain consciousness.

“Damned if I know,” another voice replied.

Nick struggled to keep his breathing even, to not take the massive gulps of air that his body was demanding of him. He was tied to a chair by one wall of the cabin, and not all that securely if he was any judge. He carefully opened his eyes, not moving his head an inch in case anyone was looking at him. All he could see were two pairs of feet standing by the open door. He'd have to move his head if he was going to figure out a plan.

The voices started to die away and Nick realised that they had gone outside so, carefully as he could, he lifted his head and fully opened his eyes.

There was a small gas lamp in the kitchen area that was casting shadows across the floor. A fire was roaring to the other side of the room, but none of its heat seemed to be reaching Nick, who realised for the first time just how cold he was. Then he noted that his shoes, socks and jacket had been removed, probably to curtail any attempt at escape. His bag was lying discarded on the table near the fire, his wallet and all its contents spread about the floor. Nick supposed it was just as well he travelled light.

He twisted his hands, trying to see if the knots were as loose as he imagined – they were. Fingers working as quickly as he could he easily undid them and then worked on the ones tying his legs to the chair, all the while keeping an eye on the door for any sign of movement, or a shift in the shadows.

Once free he replaced the rope so that it looked like he was still tied and slumped down as if still unconscious. Which was just as well for moments later the two men re-entered the cabin.

“Still out?” one of them asked.

The other moved forward and kicked at Nick's shin. Just as his boot connected Nick moved, knocking the man to the floor and wrenching the gun from the loose grip in his hand. He then stomped on the man's chest, leaving him breathless and writhing on the floor as he advanced on the other man, gun pointed directly at his heart.

“I guarantee you,” Nick said, “that I am a _way_ better shot than you are.”

The man seemed to be considering it and then slowly lowered his own gun to the floor and kicked it across to Nick, without having had to be told.

“Name?” Nick demanded.

“Curtis, this is my cabin.”

“Nice try,” Nick snorted, “but I happen to know the owner. What are you doing here?”

There was a sound behind him and he just managed to dodge the knife that the man on the floor was trying to stab into his foot. As it was he felt it scratch along the side of his leg and then felt himself knocked to floor by Curtis, who tried to wrestle the gun away from him. Their struggle turned more desperate as the other man joined in and started to strangle the breath out of Nick. Desperately keeping a hold of his gun he saw he had no option but to pull the trigger.

The sound was deafening and then slowly drowned out by a scream. It sent shivers through Nick's body – it was the creature from earlier and judging by its volume, it was right outside.

But he had no time to think about that, he could feel blood on his chest, Curtis' blood and the body atop him was heavy. The other man had moved back in shock and released his grip on Nick's throat, though seemed about to reconsider when a dark shadow fell against them.

Nick cautiously turned his head to see the creature standing in the doorway, silhouetted by the kitchen lamp. It was hideous and huge, far taller than any human judging by the way its spine was curving down, by the way its long arms were almost reaching the floor. Nick had seen pictures of such creatures back in the Foundation's library. Creatures called up from hell to do their master's bidding.

“No, no, you can't come in here,” the man was babbling, moving away from Nick and heading over to the corner of the room. “You have to do, you have to do as Curtis told you.”

The creature looked at Curtis' dead body, and then at Nick, its eyes glittering with interest. Nick tried to pull his arms free, to get at the gun which was currently trapped between his and Curtis' body, but the angle was all wrong for him to do so without drawing even more attention to himself.

The creature started to move forward and Nick was certain that he saw the flickering of wings behind him as he did so.

“I command you,” the man said, suddenly standing up from his crouched position, “I command you to stay where you are.”

The creature made a sound not unlike a hyena's call and Nick saw his chance. He pulled his hands free and, still lying on the floor, fired all of his bullets into the creature's chest. The creature looked down at his perfectly unblemished chest and then at Nick again; if he were human Nick would have sworn that he raised an eyebrow.

It was at that point that the other man completely lost his head. He started to scream and then ran at the creature with a knife he picked up from the floor, aiming, or so it looked to Nick, as if he was going to try and decapitate it. Nick didn’t fancy his chances.

Instead he moved quickly to push Curtis fully off him and look for another way out. Stairs lead up to the first floor and Nick started to move towards them, not turning around even when he heard the man's dying cries – he could do nothing to help and he wasn't sure that he would have done even if he had been able. Whatever these two had summoned had already cost innocent lives, time then that the guilty paid for their actions.

He could hear furniture being thrown around downstairs and desperately looked around for something that might end this. He stopped when he saw the drawing on the top floor. The room was completely devoid of anything except the chalked pentagram and symbols drawn onto the floorboards. A few feathers scatted near his feet indicated that a blood sacrifice of sorts had clearly taken place here.

The creature's cries were getting louder and Nick could hear it tearing at the door to the cabin, trying to get further inside.

“If in doubt, use fire,” Nick remembered Philip once telling him and his thoughts turned to the lamp in the kitchen. It seemed as good an idea as any.

So, barely pausing to look to see what the creature was trying to do Nick grabbed the lamp from the kitchen and ran upstairs with it. Then he moved over towards the only window on the top floor and smashed the glass with his elbow, ignoring the sting as pieces of glass cut into him through his thin shirt. He peered out of the window and sighed – it was exactly as long a drop down as he'd feared.

The whole cabin vibrated as the creature smashed into the wall and it seemed like it was tearing down one of the walls. Nick was out of time.

He sat up onto the window frame and dangled his legs over the side, still clutching the lamp towards him. Then he threw it violently to the ground where it smashed, flames darting out and catching easily on the floor. The whole room was ablaze in seconds and Nick could only hope that the creature was killed either by the blaze itself or by the destruction of its pentagram. Either way, the only thing Nick had left to do now, was jump.

* * * * * *

The verdict was that he'd managed to break his ankle in the fall, and that he was lucky that the strength of the blaze attracted the attention of a passing helicopter who alerted the authorities on the ground. Otherwise he might have been killed and no one would have been any the wiser; the sheriff in particular was keen to point out that he should have left his itinerary with someone at least, instead of vanishing into the wilderness on his own. Didn’t he know there had been bear sightings lately?

Nick had found that almost amusing, until he woke up to find Derek sitting by his bedside, reading a book in what looked suspiciously like Aramaic.

“You could have been killed,” Derek said. Nick frowned. He hadn't thought he'd moved, but still Derek knew he was now awake. It really was infuriating the way he could do that.

“Sorry,” Nick said.

“Don't be sorry, just don't do it again,” Derek said. “I shouldn't have let you go on your own in the first place.”

“Well you definitely shouldn't have let Alex go,” Nick countered. “And I was fine. Just a broken ankle.” Derek stared at him. “...and some bruised ribs and minor concussion.” Nick shrugged and then immediately regretted it. “I've had worse.”

“Not reassuring.”

Nick fell asleep after that, which he couldn’t help feeling invalidated his argument slightly. But he was glad Derek was there when he heard him running interference and persuading the doctor that Nick was perfectly able to fly the next day, and that the Luna Foundation would be providing excellent healthcare on their private plane.

“Since when do we have a private plane?” Nick asked.

Derek smiled. “Never you mind. Just get some sleep. We'll be home by this time tomorrow.”

Nick nodded and let himself drift off, happy to know that Derek had his back. He might enjoy a little alone time but really, there was no place Nick would rather be than back on the island with his friends. A place he really was happy to call his home.  



End file.
